Wanted Sunni militant leader arrested by Iran

IRAN

Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post

Published
4:00 am PST, Wednesday, February 24, 2010

An image grab taken on February 23, 2010 from Iranian local TV station IRIB, shows Iran's top Sunni militant Abdolmalek Rigi (C) upon his return to Tehran following his arrest. Iran said it arrested Rigi, the alleged mastermind of several deadly bombings,on a flight to Dubai only 24 hours after he was at a US militarly base in Afghanistan, in what it hailed as a "defeat" for its Western arch-foes. less

An image grab taken on February 23, 2010 from Iranian local TV station IRIB, shows Iran's top Sunni militant Abdolmalek Rigi (C) upon his return to Tehran following his arrest. Iran said it arrested Rigi, the ... more

Photo: -, AFP/Getty Images

Photo: -, AFP/Getty Images

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An image grab taken on February 23, 2010 from Iranian local TV station IRIB, shows Iran's top Sunni militant Abdolmalek Rigi (C) upon his return to Tehran following his arrest. Iran said it arrested Rigi, the alleged mastermind of several deadly bombings,on a flight to Dubai only 24 hours after he was at a US militarly base in Afghanistan, in what it hailed as a "defeat" for its Western arch-foes. less

An image grab taken on February 23, 2010 from Iranian local TV station IRIB, shows Iran's top Sunni militant Abdolmalek Rigi (C) upon his return to Tehran following his arrest. Iran said it arrested Rigi, the ... more

Iran accused the United States of having supported the insurgent leader, while his group issued a statement claiming that the CIA was involved in his arrest. The United States denied both assertions Tuesday.

"These claims are just plain garbage," a senior U.S. intelligence official said in Washington.

Abdul Malik Rigi, 27, was captured in an unspecified third country, Iranian Interior Minister Mohammad Najjar said. Iran accuses Rigi of being the mastermind of numerous terrorist attacks that have killed dozens of people. Rigi, who for years has been Iran's top fugitive, heads the Jundallah (Soldiers of God, or God's Brigade) group, which says it supports the rights of a Sunni Muslim minority in Iran and operates in Iran's southeastern border region.

Iranian authorities say the United States gives financial and organizational support to the group, which often posts al Qaeda-like execution videos on the Internet.

Iran's intelligence minister, Heidar Moslehi, accused U.S. authorities of providing Rigi with a false Afghan passport, which he allegedly used to travel to several European countries. In a news conference Tuesday, the minister also showed a photograph that he said proved the insurgent leader spent time on a U.S. military base 24 hours before he was arrested.

However, a Web site connected to Jundallah asserted that Rigi was arrested by the intelligence services of the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan, then handed over to Iran.

The campaign to arrest Rigi had been stepped up in Iran after 42 people, including six Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, died in an October suicide attack. Jundallah claimed responsibility for the bombing in the city of Pishin in Sistan-Baluchistan. Iran is an overwhelmingly Shiite country in which Persians are the dominant ethnic group. Rigi's group operates in Sistan-Baluchistan, where Sunni Muslims of the Baluchi minority live. Some members of this minority say they are ethnically distinct from Persians. The Baluchis live on both sides of the porous border between Iran and Pakistan, where authorities contend with the smuggling of drugs, weapons and oil.

Jundallah says it is fighting for the rights of Sunni, Baluchi Muslims in their region.